


Piggyback

by bennycube



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Oxventure
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 10:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18754597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bennycube/pseuds/bennycube
Summary: Corazon's boots are brand new, okay? He doesn't want to get mud on them.





	Piggyback

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the part in "A Fishmas Carol!" where Corazon asked for a piggyback to avoid sewage.

Five hours into the Oxventure guilds long winding journey they come across the entrance to a swamp, marked by a wooden sign. The place happens to be in an area with overlapping but distinctive language dialects, so the name of the swamp has been passive-aggressively painted over several times with alternate spellings of the same word. The group, of course, is completely unaware of this so all that matters to them is the part of the sign reading ‘swamp.’

“I’m not going in there,” Corazon says immediately upon reading it; everyone else rolls their eyes. Prudence sits down on a nearby rock to wait out the incoming argument.

Dob pulls out a map – that they were given at the start of their quest – and looks at it carefully for a moment. “Well, according to the map, we have to,” he explains. “The town we’re being sent to is on the other side.”

“Are you sure?” Corazon asks, he snatches the map out of Dob’s hands. “Who let you have the map anyway,” he mutters. He looks over the map for himself, getting visibly frustrated as he realises Dob is right. “Fine, we’ll just walk around.”

Egbert looks at the map over his shoulder. “That would take days,” He whines. Corazon huffily folds the map closed so he can’t see it.

“We’re not walking around the swamp,” Merilwen says, with obvious irritation. She’s off to the side, glaring at him, and when Corazon turns to look at her Egbert is forced to take a step away from him.

“I just bought these shoes,” Corazon gestures down at his fancy new boots, but only Dob and Egbert actually look down at them. “I’m not ruining them in a swamp.”

“They’re _your_ shoes,” Merilwen responds. She crosses her arms and stands straighter, like she’s ready to cut down any argument he might respond with. “You can walk around on your own.”

“Hey now,” Dob places himself between Corazon and Merilwen, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. “Let’s not split up the group.”

“Ugh, fine,” Prudence finally cuts in. The entire group turns to look at her, sitting casually and almost unconcerned on a conveniently placed large rock. “Dob,” she begins, pointing at him, “carry him.” Dob immediately turns completely towards Corazon, and moves to pick him up.

“No!” Corazon yelps as he quickly pulls away from him. Dob freezes in place with his arms reaching towards the pirate. “Dob can’t be trusted!”

“Can’t be trusted?” Dob responds, scandalized. One of his hands moves to hover over his own chest in an over the top reaction.

“It’s not like you’re gold,” Egbert adds. Dob gasps in betrayal. He turns around to look at Merilwen like he expects her to come to his defence; she pats him on the shoulder sympathetically.

“Corazon,” Prudence starts, exasperated. “We’re not walking around this entire swamp for your dumb new shoes.”

“They’re very expensive!” Corazon insists. When he looks around at the group, they’re all looking back at him with very obvious frustration; he is definitely not winning this argument. “Fine! I guess Dob can carry me,” he gives in.

“Oh, but Dob can’t be trusted,” Dob huffs. Crossing his arms and turning away from Corazon in a clear sign of rejection. Egbert chuckles, and Corazon turns to glare at him.

“Egbert, you can carry him,” Merilwen suggests.

“What? No.” Egbert’s response is almost immediate.

“Just carry him,” Prudence adds. “Hasn’t this argument gone on long enough?”

“Fine,” Egbert sighs. He turns his back to Corazon and crouches down a little.

After a moment of nothing happening, he straightens up and turns around to find Corazon staring at him with confusion. “What are you doing?” The pirate asks.

“Letting you climb on my back,” Egbert answers. “Do you want me to throw you over my shoulder or something?” He asks.

“No, turn around again,” Egbert does what he's asked but crouches even lower than before. “You’re not that tall,” Corazon huffs as he pulls himself onto the dragonborn’s back. Egbert moves his hands in position to hold Corazon’s weight then stands up straight.

“Finally,” Prudence sighs and gestures the rest of the group to continue along the path. Merilwen takes the lead. She pulls Dob along by the arm for a moment to get him to walk beside her; he cheerily gives Egbert a thumbs up as he passes him, almost as if he wasn’t angrily refusing to look at Corazon only moments earlier. Egbert starts walking along behind them, with Prudence watching their backs.

After a couple minutes of walking in silence, Egbert shifts Corazon’s weight into a better position and asks, “if we get ambushed, can I drop you?”

“You can try,” Corazon responds threateningly; he moves his arms to tighten around the paladin’s neck, which Egbert seems completely unbothered by.

“That’s permission,” Merilwen says, next to her Dob cheerily nods his head in agreement.

“You should definitely drop him,” Prudence suggests. Corazon moves his hands to Egbert’s shoulders so he can turn around enough to glare at her; Egbert shifts to compensate for this move without complaint. “When he least expects it,” she adds, glaring back at the pirate. Corazon huffs as he faces completely forward, moving his arms back around the paladin’s neck to try and prevent falling off. His grip is tight enough to be considered clinging.

“Do not drop me!” He insists. Egbert hums non-commitally in response.

The Oxventure guild continues on to their next adventure.


End file.
